England, here I come
by Hawklan
Summary: Xander, Giles and Faith arrive in England and Giles homeland will never be the same after meeting Xander and Faith. Sequel to my story "The reading"
1. Chapter 1

England, here I come

Summary: Xander, Giles and Faith arrive in England and Giles homeland will never be the same after meeting Xander and Faith. Sequel to my story "The reading"

Disclaimer: I still don't own BVTS or Harry Potter. One was created by Joss Whedon and the other by J.K. Rowling. I just borrow a few bits of their verses to play with and as every fanfic author I do that for fun and not to earn money, so please sue someone else *g*

Beta: Inachis (Thank you for your work)

Chapter 1 -Merry Old England

A few hours later the three landed at Heathrow Airport in London. It was a long, but quiet flight as they spent most of the time asleep after the long evening before. Giles, as the current leader of the Council, used the diplomatic status he was granted a while ago because of this position to get them around customs. This was one of the easier ways to get all their favorite weapons with them to England. Yes, they could just rearm themselves at the new Council Armory here in their Council HQ for England, but Giles shuddered at the thought of trying to convince Faith into leaving behind her two beloved tomahawks that Xander has given to her as a birthday present two years ago. He still remembers with horror the day one of the Sit 'borrowed' one of them three months ago. He quickly suppressed that memory as the three of them left the building.

Faith, being herself, hadn't any problems in getting them a taxi and after they stored their entire luggage, Xander gave the driver the address Remus gave him, of Ms. Verner's home.

A while later they reached the location and after Giles had paid the driver, Xander looked over the nice building and said, "Ok, here we are and now we will meet our new family member, I guess."

He took a step towards the door and pressed down the doorbell. They waited for a few moments and the door was opened by a good looking woman in her thirties. At least that was what Xander guessed. "Good day to you, how may I help you?" said the woman while looking at the three people before her.

"Hello Miss, these are my fiancée Faith and our friend and surrogate father Rupert Giles and I am Alexander Harris. We're here to meet with a Miss Verner?"

The woman nodded and then replied, "Ahh Mr. Harris, yes. Miss Verner awaits you in her office."

She stepped away from the door and gave them enough room to enter, without inviting them. After they entered the entrance hall the woman spoke again, "Welcome to England. I'm Ms. Verner's personal assistant and you can call me Melinda. If you would follow me, I will show you the way."

With those words she went through the hall until she reached a big ebony door. She opened the door with a bit of effort and then went through it and they all entered a long corridor with several doors right and left. At the end of the corridor Melinda knocked at a door and after a short "Yes?" she opened the door and spoke, "Ms. Verner? Your guests have arrived."

"Good, please let them enter." They heard a female voice say from the room.

Quickly they entered the room and stood before a long ebony desk with a few visitor chairs before it. The young woman behind the desk stood up and after they introduced each other, she bade them to sit down.

"Nice to finally meet you in person Mr. Harris. Shall we go straight to business or are there some other things you want before that?" spoke Ms. Verner.

"First of, call me Xander. If someone says Mr. Harris I always look for my father and I really don't need that, and second, straight to business would be fine for me. At least regarding all things of the Black family. All things regarding Harry I would like to do later after I've met Harry and talked with him to hear his opinion about becoming my ward. I won't force him into it and after that I also would like to hire you to take care of all things related to integrating the former Malfoy assets into the Black family." Xander answered her.

Shocked, Ms. Verner asked, "Assets of the former Malfoy's?"

Xander nodded, "Yes, but let's talk about that later. Let's deal with the absolutely necessary legal matters regarding the Blacks first and then I would like to finally meet Harry. Everything else we can talk about later."

At the same time in the room above Ms. Verner's office three teenagers lay on the ground while listening through a pair of expandable ears. After they took those away Ron looked at Harry and while noticing that Hermione was holding Harry's hand, he ignored that fact and he said, "Wow, sounds like an interesting guy so far. I wonder what that bit about the Malfoys meant."

Harry nodded and replied, "Yes, I really look forward to meeting him soon and I have no clue what they meant about the Malfoys." Harry himself also noted that his hand was entwined with Hermione's, but instead of ignoring it, he enjoyed the sensation. Smiling in her direction he said, "What do you say Hermione?"

"Hmm, sounds like the Malfoys did something stupid again, which is not really a surprise I would say, and lost a few things to the Black family. I think your new guardian will tell you about it later on. I think their meeting will conclude soon and we should hurry down so they can find us a bit easier, rather than stay up here listening to them." She smiled back at Harry and was also enjoying the sensation of holding hands with the boy she was starting to see as more than 'just' a best friend.

Harry and Ron quickly agreed with her and after putting the ears back into a back pack, they hurried down to the big living room to wait on Ms. Verner and their guests.

Down in the living room again the three sat down at the table and while Hermione and Harry started to read something, Ron set up a chess set to play against himself.

A few moments later the door to the living room opened and as Harry looked up from his book, he saw Miss Verner enter. Following her into the room came three other people. One was an elder man with glasses on and he had the look of a scholar about him. He guessed that this would be Mr. Harris, his new guardian. With him were two younger people who could only be a few years older than him and his friend and damn...the girl looked like a goddess of...of...damn he couldn't say of what...but she was it.

He also noted that all three were dressed like muggles. He let out a small sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't have to deal with arrogant pure bloods.

While Harry gave those three a quick once over, Xander did the same, but was finished with it much quicker.

Taking a deep breath Xander moved through the room to Harry, held out his hand and said, "Hello Harry, I'm Xander and I'm here to get to know you and your friends and then if you agree, to become your new guardian, but that decision is up to you."

Harry looked baffled, first at Xander and then at the older man. "You?" he said in total surprise.

Xander grinned and just answered, "Me?"

Harry looked around a bit confused, "Sorry Mr. Harris, but I thought your scholarly looking friend over there would be you...ahh Mr. Harris I mean."

Xander shook his head. "First of, stuff that Mr. Harris nonsense, I'm Xander and not my father, so please, no more Mr. Harris, and that older man you mistook for me is G-Man."

Said G-Man looked up at Xander and just said, "Mr. Harris."

Xander coughed a bit and continued, "Ahh forget that Harry... I wanted to say that is Mr. Giles an old friend and more like a father to me than my real one and the beautiful goddess over there, which you happened to not miss seeing as I noted," he said with a grin, "is my fiancée Faith."

Harry blushed a bit and then gave a short nod to Giles, "Mr. Giles," and then blushing a bit more, to Faith, "Miss Faith."

Faith grinned a bit and shook her head, as she said, "Just Faith, Harry and him," pointing at Giles, "you can just call Giles, G-Man, Ripper or...Rupes."

Giles looked at Faith and just shook his head, knowing that protesting would be futile.

Faith grinned at Giles, savoring her victory, and continued, "So Harry, now that you know who we are you could introduce your two friends."

A bit overwhelmed, Harry nodded, started to say something and then had to start a second time. "Of course, these are my two best friends, Hermione Granger, the smartest witch I ever met," here Hermione blushed quite nicely, "and Ron Weasley, one of the best chess players ever."

Xander nodded to the two and said, "Hello, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley."

Both nodded in return and said, "Hello Mr. Harris."

Looking mortally wounded Xander looked at both and said, "Pleasssseee... just Xander."

Harry grinned a bit at this. 'Xander wasn't what he had expected and he thought he could like him, even if he was an American,' he thought and laughed internally.

Xander looked for a moment at Harry and his friends and then continued. "Harry, I know that you are quite famous here and seeing you now, I would guess you don't really care for it or better, don't like it at all. Am I right?"

Harry just nodded.

"Good Harry, because if you decide that you want me to be your guardian, you have two options. We stay here in England and you can finish your education here at Hogwarts. Or we go back to America, where you can finish your education at Salem and after that go for advanced studies at Harvard or MIT. What we will do, will be your choice."

While Harry looked stunned, Hermione said, "Harvard and MIT, but those are muggle colleges."

Xander nodded. "Yes and no Miss Granger. First of, in America we don't use the term muggle. That's an outdated European Pureblood nonsense. In America we simply have magical and non-magical people, which in my opinion is better than the disparaging term 'muggle'. As for Harvard and MIT, yes, those are colleges, but they also offer several courses you can choose in addition to the 'normal' stuff, if you are magical. Things like Advanced Potions, Spell Crafting and a lot more. You know, magical Europe is kinda backwards to the rest of the world when it comes to things like that."

Hermione looked a bit shocked and said, "But Hogwarts is the best magical school in the world."

Xander shook his head, "Maybe here in Europe, but in the rest of the world? Let me explain. If you would finish Hogwarts and then you decide to immigrate to America or maybe Australia, the first thing you would have to do to get a Visa is a placement test, so that the state can see what you know and then to give you a reeducation course. You either take it and finish the test at the end or your Visa would be denied."

Shell shocked, Hermione only asked, "Why?"

"Ohh, that's quite simple, let me give you a small example," Xander said and as Hermione nodded he turned to Ron.

"Ron, you grew up in a Pureblood family. Am I right?"

Ron looked at Xander and nodded.

"Ok, don't take it wrong, please. It's just to give Hermione a small example," Xander said.

Ron nodded again. "No, problem Mr. H..ahhh Xander," he corrected himself after seeing Xander's gaze.

"Good, then let me ask you something. Ron, can you tell me the web address from Amazon or let's say from the RBS and can you tell me who landed first on the moon and when?"

Ron looked at Xander and shook his head, "Sorry the web address? And someone flew to the moon? How and with what broom?"

Xander looked at Hermione and said, "Do you see? I think that proved my point regarding the education of magical people in Europe."

Hermione was speechless.

Faith giggled and said, "Xan...I think you broke her."

Harry looked at Xander with a bit of longing and then said, "I would love to go to one of those schools, but I can't."

Faith looked at Harry and asked, "You can't?"

Harry nodded and replied, "No, sadly not. There are things I need to do here in England."

Xander looked up at that and said, "You mean that prophecy rubbish? Forget it."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked shocked at Xander and then Harry asked, "You know the prophecy?"

Xander shook his head and answered, "No, I don't and I don't need to know it to tell you that it's rubbish. First of, a prophecy is mostly self-fulfilling and seldom goes like you think it will."

Harry looked at Xander. "But...,"

Before he could go on Xander interrupted him, "Let me tell you something. There was a very old prophecy that one of my closest friends would die at the hand of a certain master vampire and yes, she died, but not because of the prophecy, but out of stupidity."

Ron looked up at that and asked, "How so?"

"Simple. Because of that stupid prophecy her Watcher and her lover had already given up on her and instead of supporting her and giving her some backup, those two let her rush unprepared and terrified straight to the vampire. He killed her, which could have been avoided, if certain actions had been taken, but because of that prophecy, nothing was done and she died."

Giles looked ashamed at the floor and continued for Xander, "But because a certain young man didn't believe in prophecies, he forced her lover to show him the way to the master and they were right in time so that the young man could still save her with CPR. That is why Xander thinks prophecies are rubbish and now I tend to agree with him."

"So as I said, the choice is yours and not that of a stupid prophecy," Xander said.

Harry nodded and said, "I have a bit to think about that and I'll need to talk it through with Hermione and Ron."

Xander nodded. "Do that, Harry. You have all the time you need. We aren't in a hurry. First of Ms. Verner informed me that I have to go to Gringotts to claim my inheritance. That will probably take a while and after that we'll look for a nice restaurant where we'll have a nice meal and where we can talk more. Does that sound ok so far?"

"Yes, that will give me some time," Harry answered.

"Good, see you later then," Xander said and then left together with Faith and Giles to visit Gringotts.

AN: Here it is. The first chapter to my sequel of the reading, I know it took a while, but I just couldn't find the drill to write it before. I hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Chapter 2

Note: A big thank you to Inachis for polishing this chapter up for me.

Chapter 2

After a short trip Xander, Faith and Giles reached the Leaky Cauldron. They went through the muggle repelling charms without trouble and entered the pub. Dressed as they were, they were instantly the center of attention. Xander looked around for a moment, ignoring the stares they were getting, and then went to the bartender. "Greetings Mister, we're not from around here and need to enter Diagon Alley to visit Gringotts. Could you help us out with that?"

The bartender nodded. "Call me Tom and of course, just go through that door and then..."

"Sorry if I interrupt, but I couldn't help but to hear you are on your way to Gringotts and need some help with that?" a young man, maybe around Harry's age said.

Xander looked at the young man for a moment and then nodded. "Indeed."

"My grams," he said pointing at an older lady, at one of the tables, "and I are on our way there ourselves and could show you the way if you like," the young man said.

"That would be awesome of you," Xander replied and then to Tom. "Thank you Tom, it looks like we found some help."

"No problem Mister," Tom answered.

Following the young man they reached the table where the old lady sat. "Grams? I offered these people to show them the way to Gringotts, since we're going there ourselves. It's alright, isn't it?" the young man asked, sounding a bit unsure.

The old lady looked at the three for a moment and then nodded. "Of course Neville," she said and then stood up. "Greetings, I'm Augusta Longbottom and this young grandson of mine is Neville," she said.

With a small bow Xander replied, "Greetings Miss Longbottom. This is my friend, mentor and surrogate father, Dr. Rupert Giles. The beautiful woman beside me is my fiancé Faith Lehane and I'm Alexander Harris. It's nice to meet you."

"Thank you Mr. Harris. Giles did you say? Any relationship to Rubertus Giles?" she asked.

Giles looked up in surprise and answered, "Yes, that is my grandfather."

Augusta smiled a bit to herself, seemingly lost in the past, before she caught herself and said with a smile, "Ahh it is really nice to meet a grandson of the old scoundrel. How is he doing? I haven't heard from him in a decade."

Giles smiled a bit himself and said, "He retired shortly after the last war a few years ago and then he moved to live on Hawaii. Something about the weather there being kinder to his old bones. Personally I would say a woman he met on vacation was the real reason."

"Yes, that would sound more like your grandfather," Miss Longbottom said, smiling. "So it is nice to meet you all, but we really should go now. We can always talk a bit more later, perhaps while taking a meal after your business with Gringotts is done?"

"That would be nice Miss Longbottom, but we already have a date for lunch. If you don't mind, you and your grandson are welcome to join us. Taking a guess your grandson will probably know three of the people we will meet then," Xander said before they all left the pub to go to Gringotts.

Meanwhile back in the House of Ms. Verner

Harry, Hermione and Ron sat in Harry's room. "So, what did you think about Xander?" Harry asked both his friends.

"Even if I don't believe him about the thing with the man who flew to the moon, I like him. He seems to be nice and he's giving you much more options than Dumbledore and the Order ever did and did you see his fiancé?" Ron said and at the last part his eyes glazed.

Seeing this Hermione, giggled a bit. "Oh yes, Harry noted her," she said in a strange tone neither boy could place, but Harry blushed a bit and then he stammered, "Ahh yes... I saw her and...," here he stopped, as he caught a strange glance from Hermione.

After a few moments of silence Hermione said, "Do you think what he told us about the schools outside of Europe is the truth?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "I don't know why he should lie about those and they really sound interesting. So what do you think I should do? Ask him to stay here or should I tell him I'd like to go? I'm not sure. I love Hogwarts, but mostly because of you two."

Both of his friends were silent for a moment until Ron spoke up, "You know Hogwarts' been great so far and we've had lots of fun there, but in the end I don't really think it's the best school to learn about magic or the world."

Hermione and Harry looked at their friend, baffled, and were at a loss for words.

Ron looked at them and after a few moments he said, "What? Don't look so surprised. I know you two think I'm lazy and only like to eat and talk about Quidditch and yes I have to agree to all those things, but in the end, I like to learn just as you two do. Can you really blame me that after the first few classes in History of Magic, Potions and Defense, I just didn't care anymore? So, I would say stay at Hogwarts with us and then go to one of those colleges, but you should ask Xander for tutors in the other subjects that you would need for it."

Harry and Hermione were still at a loss for words. A few moments later Hermione pointed her wand at Ron and said, "Finite Incantatem."

After nothing happened she looked at Harry and said, "Looks like it is really Ron, as surprising as that sounds."

Ron just grinned at her and as she looked at Harry again for a moment, he sent a tickling charm at her.

For now all thoughts about school and the future were gone and a full blown tickle war broke out in Harry's room. A lot of laughter was heard outside.

Diagon Alley

Faith, who never had seen so much of the wizarding world at once, gaped at all the sights, while Xander was bored. Diagon Alley was just boring after you'd seen the magical districts in America or in Cairo.

What he liked to watch was his fiancé as she took all the sights in.

Giles watched the young Slayer with a bit of amusement as well, while Ms. Longbottom asked, "My dear, is this the first time you've seen a magical district?"

Faith just nodded in reply.

Now Ms. Longbottom watched Faith's gawking with amusement as well.

"Faith?" Xander asked.

"Yes, Xander?" she replied.

"We can go shopping after we've finished our business at Gringotts and either way, we need to exchange some money before we can buy something here," Xander said.

"Ok, let's hurry then," Faith said.

Xander just grinned and so the whole group continued to walk.

A few minutes later they reached the big and imposing building the goblins used as their bank.

As they came nearer to the guards Faith suddenly looked up and without even noting it herself, her hand went to her weapons.

"Easy Faith, they're friendly until you attack them or try to steal from them. No need to slay here." Xander said in a quiet tone to his fiancé before she attracted attention.

Finally they entered the building. Faith looked around in awe again while Xander turned to the Longbottoms. "Thank you for your help, Neville and Ms. Longbottom. Here's the card from the restaurant where we will meet for our meal later on."

"It was nice to meet you and your friends Mr. Harris. We will see you in the evening then," answered Neville's grandmother.

With those parting words Xander went to the next free teller he could see.

As he reached the teller, he nodded to the Goblin in greeting and said. "Good day Mister. I would like to speak to the Goblin responsible for the Black inheritance as well as for the former Malfoy fortune."

"Good day to you as well Mr. Harris. If you would wait here for a moment, I will be right back," the Goblin answered and then quickly vanished into the backrooms of the bank.

After a few minutes he returned and said, "If you and your associates would follow me?"

Xander nodded and replied, "We will and thank you."

The goblin lead them quickly through a door and then along several corridors until they reached a big conference room. The Goblin leads them into the room and then said, "If you would wait here for a moment, Grashnak will be here in a few minutes. Over there you will find a few refreshments we have prepared for you. He is in one of the deeper vaults, so it will take short while for him to get here."

"Thank you, we will wait here," Xander replied and after the Goblin left he had to smile because Faith was at the refreshment table faster than you could say "Twinkie".

Twenty minutes and an empty buffet later, the door to the conference room opened again and an older looking Goblin entered the room.

The Goblin nodded at them and as he reached them, he offered a small bow, which the three humans quickly returned. "Greetings Ms. Lehane, Mr. Harris and Mr. Giles. My assistant told me that you, Mr. Harris, are here to claim your inheritance from the Black family, as well as to claim the spoils of war regarding the failed attack on you by the former head of house of the family formerly known as Malfoy?"

Xander nodded and replied, "Yes, that's correct and please call me Xander. Mr. Harris would be my father and I don't like to be reminded of him."

"As you wish Mr. Xander, you can call me Grashnak and we should sit down for this endeavor, as it will take quite a while," Grashnak said and pointed at a table where his assistant already had placed a huge stack of papers.

Seeing them Xander just groaned.

Several hours later Xander really looked tired after reading a lot, signing a lot and talking quite a bit about all the stuff regarding the inheritance and the fortune he'd claimed from the Malfoy's. It was quite a deal and he was just lucky that the Goblin had given him a kind of index about it all or he would never be able to remember it all.

Grashnak, who looked a bit tired himself, glanced at the three humans and grinned. "The only things left to do, before I can give you the keys to your vaults and a few other things, are to sign that last document with which you claim all the property of the Malfoy's. As soon as you sign this, their vaults will be keyed to you and if there are any hidden properties, the knowledge will be yours as well. The last thing would be the question of the boy Draco. Will you take him into the Black family or not?"

Xander quickly signed the last document and then looked at Faith. "What do you say to the thing about that boy?"

Faith looked a bit unsure. "I don't know Xan. We should meet with him first and talk with him a bit and then decide."

Xander nodded in agreement.

Grashnak stood up, bowed to them again and then said, "Good. That will conclude our business for today. As soon as you have decided about the boy you can come here and we will conclude this business."

Xander stood up as well and gave the bow back to Grashnak. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Grashnak."

Just as Grashnak turned around Xander spoke again, "Ohh I nearly forgot one thing. I would like to have full access to my accounts here with you for my fiancé."

Faith just looked at Xander and was speechless.

"Ah, that can be done quickly," Grashnak answered and after a wave of his hand, his assistant quickly hurried over to them with one more document. "You just have to sign here Mr. Xander and your fiancé must then sign here."

Xander took the document and signed it and then handed it over to Faith. "Pheww... Your quills here are worse than a vampire. I think they nearly sucked me dry," he said, grinning.

Faith took the document and the quill a bit unsure and then signed.

As soon as she finished and her signature with the blood quill had dried, a loud alarm was heard.

Meanwhile in a fine restaurant

Draco Malfoy had just had a nice meal with his followers where they discussed what they would do the next school year. After they finished the meal and were just about to leave, their waiter came over and Draco quickly signed the invoice without even looking at the amount.

The waiter looked at the document and then frowned, as the name Malfoy behind the Draco just disappeared and the words "Credit line canceled" stood under it.

The waiter looked up and called to the boy who just wanted to leave the restaurant with his friends. "Mr. Draco? It seems there is a problem regarding your payment of the meal."

Draco turned around and looked scornfully at the waiter. "That would be Mr. Malfoy to you and what problem?"

The waiter looked at the young man and was a bit annoyed at the tone he used. "Gringotts has just denied the payment with the remark 'Credit line canceled'."

"WHAT?" Draco yelled.

All around Britain and several other places several properties which had been hidden under a Fidelius Charm appeared for a moment and several people were flung out by a magical pulse just before the properties disappeared again.

"What the hell just happened?" yelled an angry Voldemort as he climbed back up to his feet.

None of his followers answered him, which enraged him even more. He exploded in fury and yelled several 'Avada Kedarva's' here and a few 'Crucio's' there.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: A big thank you to Inachis and Hawklan for helping out with this chapter.

Chapter 3

At the sounds of the alarm Faith, Xander and Giles quickly jumped on their feet and were in a ready stance, but luckily they were wise enough not to drawn any weapon directly just yet. Looking around Xander saw that Grashnak seemed to be just as confused about the alarm as they were. Just as it looked like Grashnak wanted to say something, a new document appeared before him. He read it quickly and with a wave of his hand the alarm was silenced again.

Grashnak looked up and saw with a bit of amusement how his three guests had reacted, looking ready to fight for their life. "My apologies, Mr. Xander, Mr. Giles, Ms. Lehane. There is no danger here for you. Please just sit down again and I'll explain."

The three slowly sat down again, but were still on guard. "So what's with the alarm just because I signed this document with your vampire quill?" Faith asked in a demanding tone.

"My apologies again Miss Lehane, the alarm you just heard was linked to one of our oldest vaults and it was set to sound as soon as a female descendant of that family was recognized. You are the first one to enter our bank since the original owner of that vault has passed away, even if quite a lot have tried to claim the inheritance in question."

"I had an ancestor who was a witch?" Faith asked in surprise.

"Indeed Ms. Lehane. You are the descendant of Merliana, the first and only documented witch who was a slayer as well. My assistant is currently getting everything needed for you to claim your inheritance."

Faith looked in fear at the goblin and then at Xander, "I just hope I don't have to sign as much as you."

-EHIC-

Meanwhile in the main room of the bank

Enraged, Draco stormed into the bank, followed quietly by two of the security wizards from the restaurant. Ignoring the long lines of waiting wizards and witches, he went directly to one of the goblins and slammed the declined invoice on the goblin's desk. "What is the meaning of this? Wait until my father hears about this, he will have your bank closed at once!"

The goblin looked quite bored at him. "Wizard, step into line like everyone else and then, when it is your turn, you can bring your business with Gringotts to my attention."

Further enraged, Draco yelled, "You disgusting thing, I will do no such thing! I demand to know the meaning of this is at once!"

The goblin didn't even look at Draco as he gave wave with his hand. Two security goblins appeared behind Draco and unceremoniously grabbed him and dragged him to the end of the waiting line. Just as Draco went to start yelling again, one of the security goblins said, "Wait here quietly or we will throw you out of the bank."

Fuming, Draco kept quiet, but promised to himself to extract bloody vengeance on the goblins.

Quite a while later Draco was finally at the front of the goblin's desk again and just as he started to voice his demands again, the goblin pulled quite a large watch out of his pocket, looked at it and with a large smile he put a sign on the desk, stood up and left.

Speechless, Draco stared at the sign, which read. 'CLOSED, Please choose another goblin to help you'.

-EHIC-

The goblin who had just left his station, watched with amusement the speechless face of that arrogant child wizard. After the child had cursed for a while and then went grumbling to the next line, the goblin quickly went to the room in which Grashnak was holding the meeting with the heir of the Black line. He knocked and after Gratuk, the assistant of Grashnak, opened the door, he entered and went directly to the table where the meeting was taking place. He smiled internally in amusement about the groaning of the human woman who was currently reading and signing a small amount of paperwork. "Sorry to disturb your meeting, Master, but you wanted to be informed if the wizard formerly known as 'Draco Malfoy' was seen. The human Draco is currently waiting in a line in our main room. What are your wishes in regards of him?"

Grashnak watched him for a moment and then smiled and turned to the younger of the two human males with him at the table. "Lord Black, would you like to meet young Draco now to determine if you will take him into your house?"

The young human nodded and after a wink from Grashnak, Gratuk quickly left the room and returned a few moments later with a yelling Draco. "I demand to be told at once why I'm being dragged here at or my father will hear of this."

Grashnak stood up and directed his gaze at the human youngling. "Be silent boy. We Goblins don't care about a man who is sitting in an American muggle prison with his wand snapped and his magic bound. You boy are here so that Lord Black can decide whether you will be accepted into his house or not."

"Why would he have to take me into his family? I'm a Malfoy. I don't need to be taken in," Draco yelled.

"Not anymore. The family known as Malfoy is extinct and so you will either be taken in by Lord Black or you will be a nameless wizard," Grashnak said with a teeth flashing smile.

At hearing this Draco's face lost all its color for a second, but then his arrogant streak was back and he said, "Ok, then finish up your business with those two mudbloods and their whore so that I can talk to Lord Black. After all..." Before Draco could finish that sentence he suddenly felt pain in his face, crashed to the floor and in astonishment he registered that his nose was bleeding and hurt like hell.

-EHIC-

Xander, Faith and Giles watched the entrance of the arrogant boy in amusement. At the slur at them or more because of what he called Faith, Xander's face went stone cold, but before he could do anything, Giles was already on his feet and was nearly flying the few steps to the boy. Xander could see a nice right hook which smashed into the boy's face and broke his nose. Then Giles yelled, "If you git ever call my daughter a whore again, a broken nose is the least of your worries."

Faith could only smile at that and said, "Thanks for defending my honor, pops."

Giles groaned and then sat down at the table again, while Xander stood up. He looked at the boy for a long while and then shook his head and turned to Grashnak. "Sorry for this master goblin. We will of course pay for the cleanup and as Lord Black, I sadly have to say that I won't allow that boy into my family for now."

Grashnak nodded and said, "So noted, Lord Black. What about the already paid Hogwarts' fees for the boy? You can claim them to be paid back to you."

Xander shook his head. "No, I won't for now. Let him finish his education, but all other costs are his own problem."

Grashnak nodded again. "As you wish, Lord Black. I think that concludes our business for now. Until we meet again and may your gold grow."

"Thank you Master Grashnak. Until we meet again and may your fortune grow as well," Xander replied. Both bowed their head to each other and then Xander, Faith and Giles left the bank.

Outside the bank Faith looked at her watch and grinned with joy. "Boys…We still have two hours until we have to meet the others in the restaurant. So let's go shopping for a bit."

Giles and Xander groaned and before one of them could say anything Faith continued, "You promised, X."

Xander cursed himself for that bit of stupidity and then nodded. "Ok, let's go."

-EHIC-

Nearly an hour later a tired Xander and Giles dragged themselves in the direction of the restaurant, while Faith was walking beside them quite happily. "I love magic," she said as she looked at a trunk which easily fit into the palm of her hand. "Who would have thought that all the stuff we bought would fit into that? Sadly the fashion of the wizards is a bit outdated. We'll have to visit a few shops in London," she said with an evil smile and looked at Xander and Giles.

"As far as I would love to accompany you tomorrow, Faith, I am sorry to say that I have several meetings with the local watchers and my day is already filled," Giles said.

Xander looked at Giles and mumbled, "Traitor." Then he looked at Faith and said, "If someone would have told me that you are a shopaholic like Buffy and Cordelia, I would have called him a liar."

Faith grinned and replied, "What shall I say? I love magical shopping…so sue me."

Finally they reached the restaurant and quickly entered it. They went to the receptionist and before they could say anything the young woman said with a sad tone in her voice, "Sorry Sirs and Madam, but we can't serve you here in this restaurant, this establishment only carters to Purebloods."

Xander looked at the young woman and after swallowing his anger down a bit said, "Says who?"

The young woman looked sadly at them and replied, "Sorry again. I only follow the directions of the owner of this establishment."

"Then I would like to talk to whoever owns this racist inn," Xander said in a low voice.

The woman gulped a bit and said, "Sorry, but the owners are never here. I can call the manager for you."

Xander just nodded while the young woman quickly vanished.

-EHIC-

Sally looked at the three 'guests' and gulped. She couldn't say why, but somehow she knew she didn't want to anger those three at all and so quickly said, ""Sorry, but the owners are never here. I can call the manager for you."

As the younger of the two men just nodded, she quickly went into the direction of the manager's office. 'Damn, I hate this job. If I didn't need the money…,' she thought and then quickly knocked at the door. It took a few moments and then the door opened and Mary, one of the waitresses, rushed out. After that she heard an annoyed, "Enter."

She quickly entered the office and shuddered as she saw how Phillip just closed his zip. He looked up at her and in a furious tone he said, "You damn halfblood, can't you do your job or what? You now that you shouldn't disturb me when I'm in this office. You're lucky that I don't fire you. So what do you want, you incompetent witch?" Phillip yelled at her.

'Firing me? Then you would have to work yourself, you damn asshole,' she thought, before she replied, "Sorry sir, but there are three people who I had to tell we can't serve because of the owner's directions, but they wouldn't budge and demand to speak with the owner. After I told them the owner is never here, they demanded to speak with you, sir."

"And why didn't you just throw them out instead of disturbing me?" Philip asked in an angry tone.

"By myself sir? As you know Melvin is out sick," Sally replied.

Grumbling, Phillip came out of his office and went to the three people. While walking to them he inspected them and couldn't believe that they had even tried to get in here dressed like that. "As Sally told you, we don't serve mudbloods like you here, so get out now," he said arrogantly.

As Sally looked the younger man into the eyes, she gulped and prepared to protect herself in an instant, but instead of exploding as she feared, the young man said in a dangerous sounding tone. "So, you're saying you won't serve us here, correct?"

"Are you deaf as well, you damn mudblood? Now get out or I will call the Aurors," Phillip yelled and with that all eyes in the restaurant were on him.

Sally silently cast a protego on herself, but was surprised as the young man just smiled again, while the older man put a hand on the shoulder of the woman as if to restrain her.

-EHIC-

Xander looked at the git and just couldn't believe the attitude of the idiot. With amusement he noted how the poor woman behind the git cast a protection spell on herself. He smiled at the woman and said to her, "Sally, right?" As the woman nodded he continued. "Would you be so kind and check your book for a reservation under the name Alexander Harris-B….," before he could finish that, Phillip yelled, "As if you would have a reservation. Now, get out!"

Until now Faith had kept quiet and hadn't said anything, but as she saw how the idiot pulled his wand and was directing it in X's direction, her slayer reflexes came to the front. With a swift move she grabbed the wand arm with one hand, the wand with the other and just a moment after that a "Snap" was heard through the restaurant.

Phillip stared disbelieving at the remains of his wand, then looked at the woman and yelled, "You damn mudblood whore, you broke my wand! You'll pay for that!" As he tried to slap Faith in the face, pain suddenly exploded in his face and he cried out. Holding his nose he said in a whining tone. "I will have you scum in Azkaban for attacking a pureblood."

"Funny you should say that," Giles said with a devilish smile.

Xander smiled as well and then said to Sally, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, would you check your book for a reservation under Alexander Harris-Black?"

Stunned, Sally gaped at the young man. 'Did he just say Black?' she thought and then for the first time noted the sigil ring on his hand with the crest of the Black family on it. Gathering herself again she said, "Of course, Lord Black. Your table will be ready at once," she said.

Xander grinned and said, "Thank you Sally. Ohh would you be so kind and call the Aurors to have this idiot arrested for attacking the Lord Black and his fiancée?"

"Of course Mylord," Sally replied.

"Thank you again. If you would show us our table now?" he said and then directed his gaze to Phillip. "And you? You are fired."

"Sally, from now on the owner of this fine restaurant won't tolerate such an attitude anymore. I hope that you, as the new manager, will make sure of that," he said to the young woman.

"Of course, sir," she mumbled in a shocked tone. She couldn't believe it, did Lord Black, whose family had owned this restaurant for quite a long while, just promote her, a halfblood, to manager? She couldn't believe it. She gulped and pulled herself together, relying on her professionalism, "Thank you Sir. Would you and your guests please follow me?"

After the three had taken their places they were joined soon after by Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ms. Verner, and shortly after that Ms. Longbottom arrived together with her grandson Neville. Once the kids had greeted their school mate, they all enjoyed quite a nice meal.

After they had finished eating, Xander turned to Ms Longbottom and said, "Lady Longbottom, you are a member of the school governors, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am, Lord Black. Why do you ask?" she wanted to know.

"That's simple Milady. I'm quite shocked about the quality about the so called education the children are getting at this school and so have decided to take my place on the board to do something about that. But first, would you be so kind to just call me Xander? I don't think we need all this formality, do we?" Xander said with a grin.

Ms. Longbottom looked at the young man for a while and thought about what he had said. Maybe they could finally do something about the sinking quality of the Hogwarts education. "Only if you call me Augusta, young man, and what have you planned? Sadly I must agree that the quality of education has fallen since Dumbledore became headmaster."

"Oh, there's quite a lot of things that need to be done, I fear," Xander said and so the two talked nearly an hour about the situation and how to rectify it.

Harry was quite shocked about all the things Xander wanted to change, and he and Neville were even more shocked that Nev's grandmother agreed with most of it, even if she was a bit skeptical about the more modern things Xander planned. Harry and the other kids were speechless as Xander asked their opinion and what they would like.

Finally, after all had been said, Harry said, "Wow. If you and Miss Longbottom can get even half of that done, I'll go back to Hogwarts after the summer after all, instead of one of those other schools you talked about."

Miss Longbottom looked at Harry, shocked. "You planned to leave Hogwarts?"

Harry nodded and replied, "Yes Miss Longbottom, as the school is now, I won't learn what I need to survive the war with Voldemort."

"Good. I will call for a meeting of the Board of Governors in two weeks time then," Miss Longbottom said.

"That would be great and it gives us enough time for a bit of travelling. I had planned to visit a friend of mine and ask him for some help with Harry's eye problems," Alex said.

After they had all said their goodbyes for now and just waited to leave, Faith suddenly spoke. She had been quite about most of the school talk. "One more thing Miss Longbottom. Harry, Hermione and Ron will start an advanced training program tomorrow morning. Your grandson is welcome to join them if he wants."

Augusta looked at her grandson and asked, "Neville?"

After looking at the nods of his schoolmates Neville replied, "I think that would help me quite a lot, gran."

Xander grinned and said, "Good, then join us tomorrow at 5.30 for the start of the training and if your grandmother allows it, bring enough stuff with you for a small trip, because a bit of this training will be in Germany and we will leave the day after tomorrow."

"Germany?" Augusta asked.

Xander nodded. "Yes, the friend I mentioned lives there."

Augusta thought about it a while and noted that Neville was quite eager to join his friends in that. Grateful that her grandson finally had friends and enjoyed something other than his greenhouse, she nodded. "Good, I agree and Neville may join you."


	4. Chapter 4

Note: A big thank you to Inachis for her never ending help with my works.

Chapter 4

House of Ms. Verner, the next morning

Hearing a loud and infernal sound like the shrieking of a banshee, Harry's eyes snapped open and he jumped out of his bed. Since he wasn't wearing his glasses, he couldn't see much and so he tumbled a moment on the slippery carpet. Fumbling around for a moment he found his glasses on the sideboard and finally he could see where the infernal noise was coming from. Someone had placed an alarm clock on his sideboard. He quickly turned it off and seeing a slip of paper underneath it, he read what was written on it. 'Good morning Harry, training begins at six so be ready then, X.'

'At six?' Harry thought and threw a glance at the clock again, which showed him that it now was 3 minutes after 5. Groaning he dragged himself to the shower.

-EHIC-

In the middle of a dream where his beloved 'Cannons' were winning the England championships Ron suddenly heard the loud howling of a pack of were-wolves. Still half asleep he grabbed his wand from under his pillow, pointed it at the direction of the howling and mumbled something. A short flash and a crashing sound later the howling stopped and Ron returned to his Cannons dream.

-EHIC-

Around 5.30 Harry dragged himself into the kitchen and wasn't really surprised to see Hermione already sitting at the table. What surprised him was that Neville, who had decided to come with them directly yesterday, after getting a few things from home, was sitting there as well. Both were chatting about some herbology stuff as he said, "Good morning, you two."

"Good morning Harry," both said and Neville continued, "A nice strong tea to wake you up?"

Harry just nodded thankfully as he dropped in one of the chairs. After he'd drunk the cup Neville had given him, he looked around. "So training at six?" he said, shaking his head. "They're crazy and where are they?"

"They were here drinking a coffee a few minutes ago and said they had to prepare a few more things and that they would be back shortly," Hermione replied.

"Coffee? Did you say coffee?" Harry said and looked around eagerly. He never understood why this nectar of the gods wasn't served at Hogwarts, but for now he didn't care as he finally found the coffee machine at the other side of the room.

Hermione and Neville watched and were both smiling as Harry helped himself to a cup of coffee. After Harry had drunk his first fill, his smile widened and he looked around again. "Seems like Ron hasn't woken up yet, I think I'll go wake him quickly."

As the other two just nodded he quickly hurried to where Ron was sleeping. Knowing how hard it is to get Ron awake, he presently picks a trick that works most of the time. "RON!" he yelled. "Neville is eating all the pancakes."

Laughing to himself he watched as Ron jumped out of the bed, hurried to the bathroom and yelled at him, "I'll be down in two minutes. Save me something to eat."

He turned around again and went back to the kitchen, still snickering.

At 10 minutes before six Xander appeared in the kitchen. "Good morning, you four. I hope you are all ready for the day. We start with a bit of physical training to start to toughen you up a bit. After that a friend of mine will test your magical knowledge to see where we have to start in that regard. In the meantime Faith and I will check out a few of my estates to see where we can continue the training, so that Miss Verner can have her house back. If we find something suitable, we'll move there in the afternoon, after that we will see. Now get up and follow me," he said and not waiting for a reply he turned around and left the house through the backdoor in the kitchen.

Not really knowing what awaited them the four looked at each other and while Ron managed to wolf one more pancake down, they followed Xander into the garden. There they saw Xander and Faith as well. At seeing Faith in her training gear all three boys stopped and stood still, unable to do anything besides stare. After several moments each got a slap at the back of their heads and Hermione mumbled: "Stop starring you three, that's rude."

Seeing those three starring at her Faith had to smile and then she stepped forward. "Good morning boys, good morning Hermione. I hope you all are ready for the start of class 'XH1. We'll start with a small run of two miles to warm up a bit.'

All four teenagers looked at each other. "Two miles? Is she crazy or what?" Ron cursed.

Grinning even more Faith added. "You are right Mr. Weasley. Two miles isn't worth it to get going, let's make it three to start with. Now, go!" Grinning even more Xander and herself started a slow jog, at least slow for them. Hesitantly the four started to follow them.

Quite a while later the six reached the garden again, and Ron and Neville let themselves drop to the ground where they stood, not caring about the sweat drenched clothing, while Harry, who thanks to his Quidditch training and all the work he had to do for the Dursley's had quite a good bit of endurance and Hermione looked on with amusement at their two groaning and moaning friends on the ground.

Xander looked at the four and with a grin said, "Ok you four, that was a nice warm up, now we can begin with the training."

Ron and Neville stared at Xander with pure horror for a few moments and then both stuttered, "B…b…begin?"

"Of course, this small morning run was just to warm you up a bit. Now Faith will give you her first lesson in Aikido and then to cool down a bit a few relaxing bits from Tai Chi. After that you have 45 minutes to take a shower, eat a bite and then I will introduce you to a good friend of mine who has agreed to first test your magical knowledge both in theory and practice and then to test your non-magical knowledge as well."

"Non magical knowledge?" Ron asked from the ground.

Xander nodded. "Yes, things like languages skills, math, chemistry, history and all the other fun stuff."

Ron and Neville just groaned while Hermione looked quite eager.

"Now get up you to lazy bags, before your muscles cramp up," Faith said.

After Ron and Neville got up with some moans and groans, Faith continued. "Ok you four, now I will start to teach you Aikido. I chose this form of Martial Arts because in my opinion it is the most practical, since it also will teach you the fine arts of improvising and quick thinking. I chose Tai Chi, because one of its qualities is that it is a fine way to cool down after a bit of training."

Two hours and 40 minutes later the four teenagers were just finishing replenishing their energy levels and talking about what Faith showed them, as the post owl came in and delivered several letters for Miss Verner and the morning's Daily Prophet. Just as Hermione grabbed the issue and went to start reading it Xander entered the room with a quite good looking young woman of maybe 25 or so. What was astonishing was the fact that she was only a head taller than Professor Flitwick, but luckily with her very dark brown hair, cut short in a pixy cut, and beautiful dark hazel eyes, she looked much better than him. She had a small round face with high cheek bones, a pert, upturned nose and small mouth with full, red lips. Despite her short stature she didn't have the petite look with her round breasts and full figure. She wore a simple gold stud in her right ear, but in her left ear she had an earring in the shape of a stylized monkey with dark stones for the eyes. On her right forefinger she wore a largish gold ring in the shape of a wreath, with a lyre where a stone would normally be. And on her breast, right above her heart, they could see a tattoo of a butterfly peeking from under the v-neck of the shirt she had on. Seeing all this the boys had to be careful not to stare and to get slapped by Hermione again.

"There you are," Xander said and after nodding into the young woman's direction he continued, "This is my friend and colleague V…," at a glance from the young woman he stopped for a moment and then continued. "Where was I? Ahh yes, as I wanted to say this is my friend and colleague and for now you will know her by her nickname Inachis. If and when you will know her real name is up to her. I will leave you now in her capable hands, while Faith and I will check out a few estates we own to see where we will move to in the afternoon. Have fun," he said and with a nod in their direction he left the room, but not before grabbing one of the pancakes on the plate sitting on the counter.

"Hello, as Xander said, for now you can call me Inachis. For know I am here to test the level of your knowledge in several things. That will take a few hours and I will then design a lesson plan for each of you, taking into consideration the level of your knowledge," she said in lightly accented English. Looking at Neville and Ron, she continued, "You two, please don't be discouraged if you don't know much about the non magical stuff we'll get to later on. It sadly is a known fact to everyone, but the English Wizards themselves, that their education is one of the worst in the known world. I'm here to fix that, at least for you. You all have finished your fifth year, if Xander has informed me correctly, right?"

After all four had nodded she gave a wave with her hand and the table was cleared of everything that wasn't needed. "Good, let's start then with your theoretical knowledge about magic," she said and handed out several sheets of paper to each, while looking quite amused by their astonished faces for her bit of silent and wandless magic. She took out a stopwatch, pressed a button and said, "You may start now."

Somewhere on the estate round trip

While Harry and his friends were taking the test Xander and Faith had already visited several of the estates that now belonged to Xander, but so far couldn't settle with any of them. None really suited their purpose of training Harry and his friends. "Damn, finding something suitable is harder than I thought. Let's try the next one on the list and if that one isn't suitable either, we'll just have to make it suitable," Xander said.

Faith nodded and replied, "Yes, most of those houses were nice, but somehow all missed something."

Xander nodded and held up the next key on the key chain the goblins had provided him with. "Make sure to touch it this time and not to let go," Xander said with amusement.

Faith only grumbled and then took the key as well and both felt a tug in the area of their navel and then were pulled to their next destination. They landed on the porch of quite a big manor with quite a nice piece of land around it.

Before they could even look around Faith suddenly felt something prowling around her legs and both heard a 'Meow'. Faith looked down and quickly picked up a white little kitten, which began to purr as Faith started to pet it. She looked at it and saw that it wasn't totally white as she had thought before. It had two little black spots on the forehead and two bigger ones at the end of the back, as well as the tail which was mostly black with some white spots on it.

Xander grinned at the look on Faith's face and said, "Looks like one of the inhabitants of this manor already likes you, love."

Before Faith could answer they heard a 'plop' and before them stood a house elf with a look of terror on his face as he saw the kitten in Faith's arms. "Twinky is so sorry master, the little rascal somehow found his way onto your lands and each time I have brought it somewhere else it came back again shortly. Twinky will punish herself," the little elf said and started to slam her head against the wall of the manor.

Xander quickly grabbed the elf and said, "Stop that, why are you doing that?"

"Old master always said no pets on the grounds and little Twinky failed to follow that order and so has to punish herself. I'll go now and find an oven to put my head in," the miserable looking elf said.

Before she could plop away Xander said, "Stop and stay here. I'm not like your old master and you don't have to punish yourself, but now that you are here, please show us around."

"Yes master, sir. Twinky will do that."

House of Ms. Verner

While Twinky showed Xander and Faith, with the kitten still in her arms, the house Inachis pushed the button on her stopwatch and said, "Time is over, please put down your pens."

She waited a moment until all had put their pens down and then quickly gathered the test sheets. "Ok. I will grade those and you will get the results after you are all back from your trip. Now go get something to eat and be back here in an hour for your practical test," she told the group.

The four teenagers quickly hurried out of the room and went into the kitchen where a meal was already prepared for them. After they sat down to eat a bit, Hermione finally got to read the Prophet.

After a few minutes, while the boys had eaten their fill, Harry looked at Hermione and asked, "Something interesting?"

Hermione nodded and replied, "Not really, only that Fudge's funeral was yesterday and ahh here, read for yourself." She handed the newspaper over to Harry who quickly read the headline.

'Amelia Bones, the current interim Minister has gotten a new concurrent for the run of the Minister of Magic post. David Lockhart, the brother of famous book author Gilderoy Lockhart, has told us today that he is planning to enter himself for the election to the Minister of Magic post. To see more about the life of Mr. Lockhart, see Page 8'

"I didn't know that Lockhart had a brother," Harry said.

"Me neither," Hermione replied.

"I just hope he isn't such a blighter like his brother," Ron added.

Mansion of the Goyle family

Voldemort sat on his new throne in the main hall of the Goyle family's home and looked over his minions until his gaze held on Gregory Goyle sr. "Goyle, did you find out what happened and why we were thrown out of Malfoy Manor?"

Goyle gulped and then replied, "Yes Master. One of my friends in the Ministry told me that the whole Malfoy fortune now belongs to Lord Black."

Voldemort looked at Goyle for a moment, fingering his wand, but then only asked, "How did that happen?"

"During the reading of the will of Sirius Black Lucius found out that the whole Black fortune was going to an American wizard and so he took his section and searched for him. They attacked the heir, and sadly they failed and all, but Lucius were killed."

"HE DID WHAT?" Voldemort yelled, raised his wand and yelled, "Crucio!"

Hogwarts, Office of the Headmaster

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk, fuming. He had just returned from visiting Lady Bones. He couldn't believe it. Who does she think that she is? Defying his wishes… that was unbelievable. How could she deny him her help to release the Dursley's so that Harry could be returned to them?


	5. Chapter 5

Note: The first short part is for Duchess who was so nice to point out I didn't address Dudley's fate so far. My thanks go as always to Inachis for betaing my ramblings, but even more so this chapter because she wrote a part of it. You will see which one, because I can't curse in that language at all *g*

Chapter 5

Surrey, St. Mary's Home

Dudley cursed his fate and his damn freak of a cousin Harry. It was all that freak's fault that he now had to spend his time here. After those freaks had stormed his parents' house and then kidnapped them, he spent a while with his aunt Marge, until she had thrown him out. Then he was caught stealing something to eat and after the police found Privet Drive 4 nearly in ruins and his parents missing, they first tried to bring him back to his aunt, but she had refused to take him in again and so they had placed him in this orphanage until his parents were found.

At first it looked like he could live here quite comfortable until he tried to bully a younger kid to give him his meal. A few of the other older kids quickly showed him what they thought of the new kid bullying someone who was one of their own and now he had a bruise which reminded him constantly of their displeasure. To make things worse, the 'mother' of this home hadn't disciplined them, but he now had to help clean the kitchen, bring out the trash and a lot of the other work that was to be done around the orphanage.

Again he cursed his cousin for being a freak and placing him in this situation.

Office of Interim Minister Bones

Amelia sat at her desk and still couldn't believe what she had just gone through. Albus Dumbledore... She couldn't believe what that man had demanded of her just a few minutes ago. He really had the gall to demand her to release the Dursley's and then to order that Harry be placed with them again.

She just couldn't believe it and was toying with the thought to have Albus checked out by a mediwitch from St. Mungos to make sure he was sane. But before she could toy with that thought any more, a knock on her office door interrupted the pleasant thoughts.

Always being on guard, she grabbed her wand, pointed it at the door and said, "Enter."

The door opened and her favorite pink haired Auror entered her office. After Tonks closed the door, she said, "Slytherin was a light wizard."

"And the skies are turning pink," Amelia replied and relaxed a bit while lowering her wand. She still had it at the ready though. After all, her teacher had always yelled 'CONSTANT VALIANCE!' in her ear. "So Tonks, now that I can be sure that you are you, what can I do for you?"

"Just here to give you an update on the Dursley's. As it turned out, Vernon Dursley tried, while being escorted to the court, to gain his freedom by overcoming one of our younger recruits through brute force. The Auror's partner then hit Vernon with a stunning spell. Unluckily for Mr. Dursley he was running at the moment he was hit by the spell and he then crashed down some stairs, breaking his neck as a result."

Amelia looked at Tonks for a moment, astonished, and then said, "Tonks, weren't you the partner of that young recruit?"

"Yes, I was. So sue me, if I forgot about that staircase while my partner lay whimpering on the floor and a criminal was trying to escape," Tonks replied with a smirk.

Amelia shook her head and decided not to go into further detail here.

London, House of Ms. Verner

The four teenagers were once again ensconced in the room with their teacher.

"Right," Inachis said. "Now that we're done with testing your theoretical and practical skills in magic, it's time to turn to the rest. There's a lot of ground to cover, although I've tried to make the tests as short as possible. The tests I'm using are based on the PISA tests, although adjusted to your age level with the help of the National Curriculum of England. Truthfully, I don't expect any of you to test at your age level at this point, since Ron and Neville will never have been taught much of the material, and Harry and Hermione have been out of the school system since they were eleven."

Hermione seemed incensed by the very idea that she wouldn't be able to finish any test with close to full marks, but Harry just sighed. He didn't expect to do very well at all, but was determined to do his best at least.

"I've also included a test on what would be considered general everyday knowledge in the non-magical world. This includes things like cell phones, the Internet and so on. This is mostly to see just how much - or little - Ron and Neville know about things like this. Harry and Hermione, you can fill it out too, if you want, but I'm assuming that you both have at least a glancing familiarity with that sort of thing," Inachis continued, as she handed out thick piles of tests to the quartet.

All, except Hermione, groaned when they saw the number of pages she was handing out. Of course she was right in saying that there was a lot of ground to cover. There was history, math, chemistry, biology, geography and more, even with only short single page tests for each, it piled up fast.

"Why does any of this matter anyway?" Ron whined. "I'm not going to need to know about what the muggles are up to when I grow up. People will just think I'm weird, like Dad, for knowing this stuff." He might have been more interested in learning than it appeared at first glance, but there were limits to his enthusiasm.

Inachis blinked at him and then covered her eyes with her hand, muttering under her breath, "Ne helvetin idiootit taikaministeriössä!"

The teenagers glanced at each other a bit nervously, and then Hermione asked: "Um, Miss? What was that?"

Inachis sighed and then smiled at the girl. "Inachis will do just fine, no need to call me Miss, and what I said wasn't very polite at all. Basically I was calling the Ministry of Magic 'idiots from hell', in my native language."

She then turned to Ron and said, "As for your question, the point in knowing all this is that it gives you options. I think Xander already explained to you that if you want to leave Europe, to continue your education or to work, you'll have to know all of this anyway?" She waited until the others nodded. "Well, there you go. The simple fact is that without this knowledge you won't be able to do much more than sweep floors anywhere outside of magical Europe and even then most people will probably label you as mentally retarded for not knowing about things like the Internet. It's just the same as when magical people think non-magicals are odd for not knowing about floo or about...about...," she stopped, a little flustered.

"Oh heck, what's huispaus in English again... Quidditch!" she called out brightly, hitting on the word she was looking for.

Ron and Neville looked at each other and then at their teacher, and nodded in unison. It hadn't ever occurred to them that just like they might laugh at people for not knowing about simple every day things in the magical world, they might get laughed at for not knowing about similar things in the non-magical world.

"M- Um, Inachis? Why does the Ministry let things go on like this? I mean, they have to know that things are different elsewhere, don't they?" Hermione asked, a little upset that the world didn't seem to work quite the way she'd thought it did.

"Of course they know. They have to keep up diplomatic relations after all. But they're so convinced of their own superiority that they ignore the fact that the so called "muggles" could wipe all of magical Europe of the map if they felt like it, or that most of the rest of the world either laughs at them or thinks they're total idiots," Inachis snorted, leaning on the desk she'd been using to grade the previous tests.

"One of the reasons why magical people receive such an abysmal education in Europe is to make sure that the general population doesn't find out either or the Ministry wouldn't last for very long. Let all of the purebloods supremacists find out that magic doesn't make them superior to or even protect them all that much from trained soldiers with modern weapons, and the Ministry would have a total revolt on their hands," she explained.

Seeing Ron and Neville's startled faces, she sighed and said: "Just take my word for it for now. I'll explain later, once we're done with the testing." With that she pointed at the tests waiting on their tables and the teenagers realised that the impromptu lesson was over and it was time to get on with the task at hand - tests and more tests. With a sigh, they picked up their pens and got to work.

Unnamed house

While the kids had fun with those easy tests Xander, Faith and her new cat were quite busy. After they decided to use this manor, they got on to planning and after several hours of this and one very close inspection of the Master bedroom by Xander and Faith, they were finally finished. They gave the plans Xander had drawn to Twinky and ordered her to see that the changes were done with the help of a few goblin artisans she should hire for this.

Xander looked at his watch and said, "I guess that Inachis should be trough with the kids by now and I'm quite hungry. Let's go and grab some pizza for us all and then we can see how they've done and how many times Inachis has cursed the MOM to the lowest hells for their idiocy."

Faith nodded and so they hurried to the closest pizzeria.

London, House of Ms. Verner

Faith, Xander and Cat entered the kitchen and looked around. It seemed that Inachis wasn't quite finished with the kids yet. Ron, Hermione and Neville were still busily writing, while Harry sat there with his hands folded and looking quite bored.

Not a second after they entered the kitchen a loud growling noise was heard from Ron's direction. Grinning, Xander said, "We are back and looks like right on time to tame one hungry beast." While Ron blushed and the others snickered a bit, Inachis, with a smile on her face as well, said, "Ok, time is up either way, so stop writing and hand in your papers."

"But...but... I'm not finished," Hermione protested.

Inachis shrugged and replied, "Hermione, a time limit on a test is set for a reason, so please hand over your papers as well. After we eat a bit, I will grade your papers while you can enjoy some free time."

Xander and Faith quickly placed the pizza boxes on the table after the kids cleared it of their stuff.

Ron, with a still growling stomach, opened one of the boxes and after he had inhaled the first two slices of his pizza, he looked up and said, "Tastes fantastic...but what is it? I have never seen something like this before." Before anyone could answer he had inhaled two more slices.

"That's called a pizza. It's one of our favorite muggle foods and it's available in all kinds of flavors," Faith answered. Ron gulped down another piece and then just said "Awesome," before he went on to the next one.

A while and several pizzas later

"So I hope you are all sated for now," Xander said and after several nods he continued. "Good while you kids hang around lazy here in Ms. Verner's house, Faith and I spent the whole day looking over several estates for one we can use. Luckily we found a nice one, but it will take a while to get it to our specifications and so we will stay here for today and tomorrow we will travel to an old friend of mine."

While the kids glared with murder in their eyes at the lazy part in Xander's speech, Inachis said, "Good, that will give me enough time to grade their test and prepare suitable lesson plans for all of them."

After a few moments Hermione finally noticed Faith's new companion and said while petting the cat behind the ears, "Beautiful companion you bought there, Faith. What's his name?" Faith looked at her new friend and then replied, "That's Cat and I didn't bought him. He found me at the estate we are going to use."

The rest of the evening was spent in idle chitchat until it was quite late. "So kids, I think we all should turn in for now. You have to get up early for training and after that we have a journey before us," Xander said.

"Training?" Ron asked. "But I thought we would travel early and..."

"Going on a journey is no excuse to be lazy, young man. You will have training every morning," Faith said with a smirk. With a groan the kids left the room to get some sleep before the torture would begin again.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 06

(Heathrow Airport, London, The next morning)

After an early start to the day, which contained, to the horror of the teenagers, two hours of training, the group reached the airport. "So kids, as promised we're using a normal airplane instead of a portkey. Granted a portkey would be much faster, but you have to remember that those are tracked by the Ministry and there might be a time when you don't want the Ministry and especially Dumbledore to know where you traveled to. In this case the use of a normal airplane would be one option on how to keep under the radar," Xander explained.

Ron looked at him a bit confused and asked, "Radar? What's that?"

"Another non-magical thing, it isn't too important right now, Ron, but I'll make sure that Inachis will teach you about that as well," Xander added with a grin.

At that Neville elbowed Ron in the side and mock whispered, "Stop asking stupid questions or our lesson plans will keep us up 28 hours a day. If you don't know something Xander is talking about, be smart about it and ask Hermione later."

"28 hours?" Ron asked loudly.

"Ahh yes…We'll ask Inachis to add that as well," Faith added with an evil smirk, at which the other teens just groaned.

"Ok kids, I already booked the flight to Germany and we just have to board our plane and Ron, don't worry. You will learn how to book a flight as well, as soon as we're back," Xander said.

After they survived the madness to be found inside any busy international airport, they finally stood before the plane they were going to board. Neville and Ron, who never had seen an airplane before, looked at it speechless for a while until Ron muttered, "Wow…It's huge and it can really fly?" And before Xander could say anything Ron quickly added, "Uh, forget I asked that."

The whole group just grinned at that and then a bit later they were all finally seated in their booked seats.

+E+

(Germany, Stuttgart Airport)

While Xander was organizing their rental car at the nearby Sixth counter, the others sat in a corner of a Starbucks Cafe, where Faith introduced them to one of the best (and most expensive) coffees in the world. Harry, looking a bit green, took a deep breath. "Damn, I love flying, but only when I'm in control myself, I think. That was even worse than Floo or Portkey travel," he moaned a bit.

Ron grinned broadly and said, "Come on man, it was awesome, especially as we flew through the things Hermione called turbulance. I hope we fly back the same, because that was really fun."

"Yeah, yeah," Harry replied lamely, really hoping they wouldn't.

A few minutes later Xander rejoined them and quickly ordered himself a coffee to go. "Ok, I got a van for us, are we ready to go?" he asked. After receiving nods from everyone, he directed them all out of the airport to the parking lot. They all quickly piled in the dark blue Mercedes Viano and soon were on the road.

After they left the airport and reached a normal road, Ron suddenly yelled, "Xander… You're driving on the wrong side of the road!"

Faith grinned and replied for Xander, "Actually, he isn't. Only you Brits and a few other countries drive on the left side of the road. Personally, I blame it to the fact you Brits all lived to long on a small Island."

"Humph…," was Ron's only reply to that.

+E+

(Glottertal, Schwarzwald Klinik, around 2,5 hours later)

The van they had rented was quite big, but still they were all relieved to spill out of it after the long drive. They looked in awe at the big building the hospital was housed in. Granted, it was no Hogwart's and it didn't have the flair of Diagon Alley, but it was still a huge and beautiful building placed in the middle of Mother Nature.

Xander used the time the kids were peering around to stretch his muscles and then said, "Ok kids, let's get in and ask for my friend."

"Could we get something to eat first? I'm hungry," Ron complained and with an amused tone Hermione replied, "Ron, you're always hungry."

With a smile Xander entered the hospital and went directly to the reception. "Guten Tag die Dame. Ich suche einen Herren Udo Brinkman."

The three boys all looked at Hermione and asked, "What did he say?"

Hermione just shrugged her shoulders. "I have to admit I haven't a clue. I don't speak German." With that all four looked at Faith. "Oh no… Don't look at me. I'm just Slaygal. I slay and hunt, I don't do languages."

Meanwhile Xander had finished his conversation with the woman behind the counter and came back to them. "Ok guys," at an indignant look from Faith and Hermione he quickly added, "And girls, my friend is currently operating on one of his patients and the nice Miss Meier will inform him that we're here once he's done. So I suggest we take look at what the cantina of this establishment has to offer."

An hour later the nurse from the reception came into the cantina and quickly went over to their table. With a beautiful smile at Xander, which made Faith grind her teeth, she said in a melodic voice. "Herr Harris? Professor Brinkman kann sie nun empfangen. Wenn sie mir bitte folgen wuerden?" She turned around and started to walk out of the cantina.

Xander quickly stood up and said, "My friend will see us now. Come on," he said and grinned as he saw the look the boys threw after the woman in her tight nurse uniform. He snapped his fingers and yelled, "BOYS." Which quickly pulled the three teenage boys back to Earth, Harry a bit faster than the other two, but that was probably related to the elbow strike he got in his side from a conveniently placed Hermione.

"Ouch, what was that for Hermione?" Harry asked. "Stop undressing that woman in your mind," she huffed.

"Was not," Harry replied and before Hermione could add her reply, Faith said with a smirk. "Behave now and I might loan Hermione the nurse uniform I have at home." Leaving two blushing and two grinning teens behind her, she followed her husband to be.

The nurse directed them to an elevator and pressed the button for the upper floor, which they reached soon afterwards. She brought them to a fore office where a woman around 25 with long raven black hair sat behind her desk, typing away on the notebook before her. "Hallo Carola. Die Herrschaften hier moechten zu Professor Brinkman."

The woman looked up from her notebook and smiled at them and asked, "Haben Sie einen Termin?"

Xander shook his head, "Nein, nicht direkt. Könnten wir zu englisch wechseln? Meine Freunde hier verstehen kein deutsch."

The young woman nodded and replied, "Of course, no problem. So you want to see Professor Brinkman, but don't have an appointment exactly?"

"Correct," Xander replied.

"Sorry, but you have to understand that the professor is quite a busy man and can't see you without an appointment, Mr. …," she continued.

"Harris-Black," Xander replied to the unspoken question. "I know Miss Konstantine, but I do hope that Udo will make an exception for me. If you could ask him and tell him Xander Harris is here to see him?" he said with a smile and then added. "We met each other in Africa a few years ago and became friends of the magic of that country."

The secretaries' eyes narrowed a bit at the word magic, but then she nodded and said, "I can at least try. If you would wait here for a second." With that she stood up, went to the big ebony door behind her desk, knocked once and after a hearing a muffled "Ja?" she quickly entered the office and closed the door behind her.

They had to only wait a few moments before the door opened again and the secretary directed them into the office with a smile.

They all entered the huge office, which contained a lot of book shelves and quite a huge desk. A man around 30 or 40 with sandy brown hair stood up from behind the desk and came over to them. He quickly hugged Xander and said, "X altes Haus, schön dich wieder zusehen. Was treibt dich her?"

Xander, who returned the hug, replied, "Udo, nice to see you again and you know me, I'm always doing well." Pointing at the others, Xander continued with a huge smirk, "My friends here sadly belong to the uneducated and don't speak any German." That remark earned him a dark glare from Hermione.

Udo smirked as well and replied, "No problem Xander. After all, we can't demand that everyone speaks the language of poets and thinkers, can we?" The dark glare was now directed at him.

Laughing Xander said, "Indeed, but let me introduce you all. All, this is my old friend Doctor Udo Brinkman. We met each other in Africa while I was looking for slayers and studying the tribal magic there. Udo, these are my fiancée Faith Lehane, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley and finally my ward, Harry Potter."

Udo, who had raised an eyebrow and tensed a bit as Xander mentioned studying magic in Africa, relaxed after hearing the last name. "Potter? That explains your casual mention of magic. Please all, be welcomed here in Germany, especially you Mr. Potter. Your reputation precedes you even here."

Harry just groaned and hid his face in Hermione's shoulder.

Udo smiled and continued, "So, I guess you don't like your fame? That's good, I never liked pompous idiots much. So again, what can I do for you all? Don't get me wrong, it's nice to meet you all, but X never comes without a reason."

Xander grinned at that. "I'm flattered Udo. So I see you have taken over from the old man?"

Udo nodded, "Yes, my father retired two years ago and you still haven't answered my question."

"I haven't, have I?" Xander replied and received a groan from everyone. "Ok, ok… I never get to have any fun. We're here to ask you a favor. You know about Harry's past?" At Udo's nod he continued. "He now has to fight the asshole that killed his parents' years ago and as you now, glasses in a fight are so not of the good. You lose them for whatever reason and you are death."

Udo nodded and said, "Ok, no problem. I can help with that and gladly too. We don't need another racist asshole on a mad conquest for power."

+E+

In the next half hour they discussed everything regarding the operation for Harry's eyes and then placed a date for it in two days so that they all could enjoy the area a bit.

Two days later a nervous Harry had his operation. While Hermione refused to leave his side, the others explored the surrounding area a bit and after Harry was up on his feet again, they all enjoyed the rest of their stay, even if Faith pulled them up for their training every morning.

After their time in Germany was over, they traveled back to England and now directly to their new home, which had been renovated during their time in Germany.

After they reached it the kids looked at their 'new' home in shock, until Neville blurred out. "This…this… this is Malfoy Manor."

With a huge grin Xander replied, "Not any longer. This is now the X Institute for Higher Learning and Inachis is waiting with your first lesson which starts in 2 hours. So Twinky will show you your rooms to settle in and then make you something to eat so that you can go learn some useful stuff."

Faith looked at her fiancé in astonishment for a moment after he said the name he had given the mansion and then broke out in howling laughter. After she came back to her senses again she said, "X, you are such a geek."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

(Two weeks later)

While the kids had enjoyed exploring their new home and spent a lot of time being taught by Inachis on all stuff concerning magic as well as all the other subjects and being tortured by Faith with all the physical stuff, Xander used the time to learn more about the British magical world. He also met with several people from the magical as well as the mundane world and finally he entered Hogwarts for the first time. He was quite impressed by the castle itself so far and saw no reason to deny that. Now he only hoped that they could change a few things to make what happened inside the castle as impressive as the building.

He smiled at the housekeeper who had introduced himself as Mr. Filch and with a nod he told him to lead the way. He enjoyed the walk through the castle and all the little magical things that went with it. Finally, after a not too short walk, they reached the room in which the Board would hold the meeting. "Thank you Mr. Filch for showing me the way," he said, clearly dismissing the man with his tone of voice.

After the man sulked away Xander opened the door without knocking. As he entered the room he saw elven people sitting at a large table, who all stopped their discussion at his entrance.

Most of the people in the room he had never seen before, but he recognized them all from the files Augusta had given to him. There was Augusta Longbottom herself, who he had come to know quite well since Neville had joined Harry and the others. Then there was Marvin Baddock, a former Slytherin, Musidora Barbary, an elderly woman who once upon a time was a Hufflepuff. Paul Dagworth, a Ravenclaw who made his money as a supplier for the Auror Force. Giselle Ellerby, the owner of a small apothecary in Hogsmead. Steve Hooper, a former Auror who taught at their Academy now. Jonathan Greengrass, whose family earned their living as the biggest potions supplier in Europe. Amelia Bones, who was the heading the DLE or something, Xander had forgotten the strange name of the department. Maria Malkin, the owner of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions shop in Diagon Alley, and Charles Montague, the current owner of the Nimbus company.

These were the current members of the Board of Governors for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and at the head of the table sat the Headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore, who looked like he wasn't too happy to see Xander here. "Mr. Harris," he said in surprise. "We're currently in the middle of a meeting here. What can I do for you?"

Xander smiled at him as he replied, "First off Headmaster, that would be Lord Black to you and second, nothing. I'm not here for you. I'm here for this board meeting and to take my place as a member of the Board of Governors."

"Your place, Mr. Harris?" Dumbledore asked. "You don't have a place here," he continued.

"On the contrary Albus, as Lord Black this young man has a place on this board," Augusta intervened for Xander.

"I can't allow this," Dumbledore said and just as he wanted to say more he was interrupted by Lord Greengrass.

"You can't allow this? I think you're overstepping your authority here, Headmaster. You are here as a courtesy and you have no voice on this board," the former Slytherin said.

Smiling to herself and surprised by the unexpected help from the young Lord Greengrass, Lady Longbottom said, "Albus, the Board has some internal matters to discuss now before we come to our questions regarding your report about the last school year and our decisions for the new year. As such, the board asks you to leave until we summon you again."

"I'm the Headmaster of this school and have a right to be here," Dumbledore insisted.

With a smile Mr. Montague spoke up this time. "Mr. Dumbledore, this is a Board meeting and you were asked to leave. You can go now or the Board will have to ask the castle to remove you from this room."

A seething Dumbledore got up and left the room without another word.

Smiling, Augusta pulled her wand and after a short swish, she put it back again. "Now that we are under a privacy charm, let us welcome Lord Black into our midst."

After the welcome and introductions were over and Xander had taken his place at the table, Augusta continued. "Lord Black and I have met several times over the summer since my grandson is currently enjoying his holidays with Lord Black's ward. We've had quite a few talks, which were quite shocking to me. You all are quite familiar with the reports about the happenings in the school in the last few years?"

As they all nodded Xander stood up and pulled out several files out of a bag, which he then distributed among his fellow Board members. "In those files you'll find several reports from different students of this school about the things that truly have happened here, as well as a few reports about how our fine school is rated outside of Britain. If you would read them now we could then start to discuss some much needed changes."

+E+

(Dumbledore's Office)

He couldn't believe it. He, the great Albus Dumbledore, dismissed from the Board meeting like a mere student. 'Who do they think they are?' he thought. He grumbled a few moments longer while he made several plans on how to use his contacts to make them pay for this and then a sinister smile formed on his face as his gaze went over to the table where he had all his small gizmos he used for spying. Feeling a bit better he turned on the device he could use to listen in on the board meeting. After a few minutes of listening he stared at the device in rage and disbelief. 'They threw him out and after a small greeting to that newcomer they were only talking about everyday things that had nothing to do with the school?' He couldn't believe it. After listening to their talk a few moments longer he left his office to have a talk with his Potions Master.

+E+

Several hours and quite a few long and hot discussions about what had really been happening at the school the last few years and about what to do about Hogwarts future later, the Board finally came to an agreement on all points.

Lady Longbottom let out a heavy sigh and with a smile she canceled the spell she had cast after Dumbledore had left the room. "Good, those points of our meeting are all done. We should enjoy a small break before we continue."

After all nodded in agreement, she called out, "Miry?" and with a small plop a young female house elf dressed in the colors of house Longbottom appeared.

"Yes, Mistress?" the young elf asked.

"Would you be so kind to bring us some refreshments?" she asked of her house elf.

"Of course Mistress," the elf replied and vanished with another plop. Only moments later refreshments appeared before everyone.

After they had all enjoyed their meal, Xander spoke up. "That was a nice meal. Please give my thanks to your elf Augusta. Shall we continue then?" After they all agreed he called, "Dinkly?"

"Yes Sir?" an older elf said after he appeared.

"Would you please summon Mr. Bins for us and after that get the other people on this list and ask them to wait outside until we call them in," Xander said.

"Yes master," the elf said and then disappeared again.

Only a few minutes later Mr. Bins was led into the room by Dinkly.

"Greetings Professor Bins," Lady Longbottom said and then continued, "We have asked you to this meeting to thank you for your long years of service to Hogwarts and for teaching our children. Because Hogwarts will change quite a lot in the future and the class you currently teach won't be offered any longer in its current form, we are asking you to take your retirement with full honors."

The ghost of the old professor looked at the board members for quite a while and then after a few minutes he nodded and simply faded away without saying a word.

"That went quite well," Lord Greengrass said. Knowing what was coming next he grinned and said, "Dinkly, please bring in the next one on the list."

The elf just nodded and a few moments later he came back in with Professor Snape, who was dressed in his usual black robes with an arrogant smile on his face.

Lord Greengrass stood up this time with a smile on his own. "Mr. Snape, thank you for coming," he said in a tone that sounded quite forced.

"What can I do for the Board?" Snape asked.

"Oh that is easy Mr. Snape. You can go pack your things and leave the castle. You are fired without further notice," Lord Greengrass replied, sounding quite satisfied.

"WHAT?" Snape yelled. "You can't do this. Dumbledore won't allow this."

"Luckily for this school, Dumbledore has no say in this. Until now Dumbledore always kept his protective hand over you and those of us who have children here always dismissed their complaints about you, because we all thought it just children not liking their teacher. After reviewing your performance over the last decade we were shocked. Since you took over as Potions teacher the overall rate of OWL's and NEWT's has dropped by 75%. Until now this Board had always taken the easy way and believed Mr. Dumbledore's reports without asking too many questions. This attitude ended this year after Lord Black and Lady Longbottom showed us the true performance figures on OWL's and NEWT's as well as a few memories from children who took your classes. Now you can accept your dismissal and go quietly or not. The choice is yours," Lord Greengrass finished.

Seething Snape looked at the new Lord Black. The hatred in his eyes was visible to all. "I knew that damn Potter brat was behind this and I will…"

Before Snape could continue Xander stood up and said in a calm tone, "If I ever hear you berating my ward again and blaming your own faults on him, I will see to it you will never be able to do so again. Now go without further delay or I will put you down like I would a rapid dog."

While the other board members looked a bit shocked because of Xander's threat, Snape flushed and his hand went to his wand. He pulled it out and started to yell, "Sec.." but before he could finish the spell he was hit by a stunning spell shot by Madam Bones.

Xander nodded his thanks to her and smiled, "Thank you Madam Bones. It would have been a bit of a hassle to explain why I killed him." After he looked at the stunned form of the former Professor he smiled and then called the house elf Dinkly back to them.

"Dinkly, would you please dispose of this trash outside of the Hogwarts wards? And then bring him all the stuff that belongs to him and not to the school. Thank you," Xander said.

After Dinkly had vanished with Snape Xander got up and went over to the door. He opened it and called in the next one. They talked with each teacher that was currently employed at the school. A few were asked to leave and a few others to stay after they had agreed quite enthusiastically to the changes the board had planned for the school. That took quite a while and after another short break they all looked quite relived that only three more names stood on their list. Dinkly, who had reappeared a while ago after he completed his last task, opened the door and said, "Misses McGonagall, please."

This time it was Madam Bones who took over the talk. "Professor McGonagall, please sit down," she said while pointing at a chair before the board's table. She waited a moment until the Professor had sat down and then continued. "Professor… First of let the board thank you for your work here, but sadly there came a few things to our attention the board didn't like. Your performance as a teacher is flawless as it always has been, but sadly we can't say the same about your work as Head of the House of Gryffindor and as Deputy Headmistress."

While McGonagall looked a bit shocked, but not too surprised at Madam Bones, the same listed all the points the board had in that regard. To mention just one point was the fact that she ignored or dismissed her Gryffindors as they tried to tell her about being tortured by Miss Umbridge by the means of a Blood Quill.

After Madam Bones was finally finished she took a deep breath. "Now Minerva, all those points would be more than enough to sack you and this was discussed here, you can be sure of that. In the end Lord Black and Lady Longbottom spoke for you and because no one can say anything against you being one of the best Transfiguration teachers in the world, we came to the decision that we have to do something, but will leave the final solution to you. Currently you are fulfilling three posts here at the school, which are teaching Transfiguration, being Head of the House of Gryffindor and acting as the Deputy Headmistress. At least one of those posts will have to go, which one is up to you."

After Madam Bones was finished there was a moment of silence until McGonagall took a deep breath. Then she stood up from her chair and walked to the table. She pulled an envelope out of her robe and laid it on the table. "You know, hearing this is kind of amusing. I came here today to give this letter to you. It contains my resignation from all of my posts here at Hogwarts. Because, if I may be frank, I didn't feel able to fulfill my duties here any longer what with always being blocked from the side by the Headmaster or being ignored or shot down by the board if I complained about how the school has been run in the last couple of years."

"Complaints?" Lady Longbottom asked in a surprised tone. "There are no records of any complaints made by you in the last ten years, Professor."

At this McGonagall looked annoyed and the cursed loudly. "That utter bastard, damn why am I even surprised about this, the damn snake?" She took a deep breath and then continued in a calmer tone. "As is customary, I gave all my complaints to the Board representative, but it looks like the former Mr. Malfoy didn't see it fit to bring those up at your board meetings?"

"No surprise there," Xander muttered. "I met that idiot only once, but that was enough. Please tell us Professor, what were those complaints about exactly?"

"Actually quite a lot of the points you listed here and some others as well. If you want, I can provide you with copies of those complaints," McGonagall said.

Xander nodded and quickly called Dinkly, who hurried to get those copies after McGonagall explained where she had kept them.

After Dinkly reappeared with the copies, she gave them to Xander. He looked over them quickly and nodded to his colleagues on the board. Then he turned to McGonagall and said, "In light of this we can't accept your letter of resignation yet. Give us a day to check these over and we will talk again the day after tomorrow. Then we can decide together if you still want to be here and what duties you will fulfill in the future if you do decide to stay." He nodded at the professor and then sat down again, while Augusta stood up.

"Thank you for your time Minerva. If you want, you can leave now, but as I always respect you, I offer you the chance to witness our next talk, if you care to. Maybe it will help you in making your decision regarding your future," she said.

+E+

Dumbledore had paced and paced for most of the day, waiting to be called back in front of the board. He had already heard of the sacking of Severus as the rumor hit the staff almost as soon as it happened. He had slammed his fist down on the desk at this piece of news. He cursed Black for ruining all of his plans which required Severus to remain at his post. After that thought he had heard nothing, the portraits had refused to tell him what was going on, which galled him. Finally a house elf arrived and reported the board wished to see him. Standing up he stalked back to the meeting room, intent on putting Black and the other board members in their place.

'How dare they try and do this to me?' he thought bitterly. 'I am Albus Dumbledore, the man who defeated Grindelwald and helped stop Voldemort from conquering this country,' he continued to vent internally, ignoring the looks he got from his fellow Professors as he passed. 'They should be on bended knee, begging me to forgive them,' his more prideful side whispered.

He stopped at the door and glared at it for a few minutes as he tried to refocus his thoughts and put on his usual happy and calm façade. It wouldn't do to show these idiots just how angry he was. Finally he felt ready to face them once more. Opening the door he stepped inside and immediately wished he could glare at Black. This boy had been nothing but trouble since he had arrived. He had ruined everything. Sitting down he waited a few seconds as he was again forced to calm himself down. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"I was told you wished to see me again?" he finally stated, gaining the boards attention.

"Yes Dumbledore we did, because we have reached our official conclusion to this hearing," Madam Bones responded calmly, guessing the old man wouldn't be going to take this well. "I'm afraid that after going through all the records and testimonies we, the board, have no choice but to fire you as headmaster, effective immediately," she told him, much to his horror. "You have lost your sight of what it means to be the headmaster of this school Albus. You've forgotten that the parents of the students have trusted you with the safe keeping of their children," she informed him.

"HOW DARE YOU," Dumbledore roared, unable to keep himself from erupting in outrage.

"SILENCE!" Xander ordered with a glare at Dumbledore which was returned. Xander could see the hatred that the old man held towards him. "You can try and argue all you want, but in the past fifteen years your decisions concerning this school have led to nothing but disaster," he stated. "That says nothing for the last six years. Ever since Harry Potter returned to this world and came to this school, your choices have almost resulted in his death nearly every year and harm has come to other students as a result of those same choices," he added.

"That is a lie," Dumbledore growled in response.

"Is it?" Augusta inquired in a dark tone. "You chose to bring the Philosopher's Stone into this castle, knowing it is a highly dangerous and sought after artifact," she reminded him. "That choice nearly cost Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley their lives," she spat. "Your choice to have a Cerberus guard the trap door on the third floor almost got them killed earlier, along with my grandson, and when they tried to alert the faculty to the danger of someone trying to steal the stone, you conveniently vanished, supposedly recalled to the Ministry. There is no evidence of such a recall. You knew your deputy would ignore the children because her faith in you was absolute," she continued as her anger built. "It was at that point the children almost died going through the traps you'd set up and when she began to question your choices. You laid enough clues through Hagrid, as well as giving Harry his father's invisibility cloak, knowing they would get involved because you planned it to happen," she finished.

Dumbledore opened and shut his mouth a few times, but found he couldn't say anything in response, because Augusta was correct, he had planned it to happen as it did. It was all a test to see what kind of wizard Harry was, whether he would be capable of fighting Voldemort. But they weren't supposed to find that out, which raised the question of how they knew.

"Then there is second year. You hired the most incompetent man imaginable to be the defense teacher, knowing what an idiot he is," Madam Bones took over. "That choice led to the children falling behind in their studies, and it also put them in danger when a damn basilisk got loose," she added. "One, I might add, that you never reported and this was the same beast that killed Myrtle Edmonds fifty years ago," she continued with a glare. "You also failed to report on the fact that several students ended up petrified, which makes me wonder what you would have done had they actually have been killed by this thing's eyes?" she questioned. "By the time the Weasley girl was taken into the Chamber of Secrets there should have been Aurors all over the damn place searching for her and the beast," she growled out. "Instead, yet again it fell to Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger to solve the whole thing. Miss Granger ended up petrified and Harry Potter was almost killed by the basilisk himself when it poisoned him," she went on, doing her best to keep her anger in check. "Thankfully your phoenix healed him. Your great defense teacher turned out to be a fraud who almost wiped the memories of Potter and Weasley completely before wiping his own mind clear," she paused here before locking her glare on him. "As for you, you again conveniently vanished after you allowed Lucius Malfoy to rail road you out of the school on what you knew were faked signatures," she said and this time her tone was flat.

Dumbledore was beginning to sweat as he listened to what was being said. How the hell did they know all this? He had known Lucius had forged the boards' signatures to get him out of the school, but he had thought it was the perfect way to leave to see how Harry and his friends stood up to this new challenge. This was a nightmare, of epic proportions. He had to think and think fast on how to spin this to his own needs, that is if he could.

"Now we move on to 3rd year when you hired Remus Lupin, a known werewolf. Now we understand from our investigations Mr. Lupin was quite popular with the students of all year groups and he taught the most in his classes," Mr. Montague said. "However, as a werewolf Mr. Lupin posed a risk to the students should he ever get loose or fail to take the Wolfsbane potion designed to keep him calm and pliant during his transformations," he added. "Once again you failed to inform the board of the full reasons behind your choice. You didn't hire Lupin because of his skills, but due to his past friendship to Sirius Black and James Potter, as well as his loyalty to you," he spat. "You knew he would help you keep an eye on the boy, which was needed with Dementors stationed around the school," he told him point blank, enjoying putting Dumbledore finally in his place. "Again Potter, Weasley and Granger almost died when they were caught up with the escaped Sirius Black, the still at large Peter Pettigrew and Lupin himself," he paused before continuing. "You knew the students had left the safety of the castle, yet you did nothing to stop them and there is this business of giving Granger a bloody time turner so she could take all the subjects offered, which is insane," he growled.

"Worse, you did not seek or gain Ministry approval for the time turner in the first place," Madam Bones cut in as she leaned forward. "You also encouraged Granger and Potter to use the time turner to go back in time to rescue Sirius Black and a blasted Hippogriff called Buckbeak, again without sanction from the Ministry," she spat in distaste for his actions. "I could go on Albus, I really could, but is there a point?" she asked to her fellow board members.

"I think we can summarise the next two years Madam Bones," Xander assured her. "You helped ensure Potters' name came out of the Goblet of Fire during fourth year, as you knew Mad Eye Moody had been replaced and do not try and say otherwise," he warned. "You and Alistor Moody have been friends for almost thirty years. You knew him down to a tee and thus you knew the moment Crouch Jr. arrived polyjuiced as Moody that it wasn't him," he continued. "You did nothing to try and help Potter get out of the tournament, and there were ways Albus, even if Crouch Senior said otherwise," he pointed out. "No, you wanted him in that tournament, you wanted to test him again for whatever your end goal is," he stated calmly. "Fifth year you ignored all signs of the students being abused by Delores Umbridge, every warning from the school ghosts and portraits was ignored as were the wards which warned you of students in danger," he pressed on. "You ignored your duty to the students of this school Dumbledore, and now you must pay the price for it," he finished. "Of course, another of your choices was assigning Severus Snape to the position of potions teacher, when it is clear that man should never have been allowed near children," he began again.

"Yes, Snape is the most volatile man alive, he has berated and bullied hundreds of children in this school over the years he has been here," Madam Bones snapped. "He has favored only the Slytherins and helped them flaunt the rules of this school with your permission. He helped them bully the other students and taught them nothing but hatred for anyone not a Slytherin," she continued. "He is a disgrace to the school and to the title of teacher, and the fact you have allowed all this, is again proof of your inability to do your job, as is the fact that you have allowed this man to wage a campaign of utter hatred against Harry Potter just because he is the son of James and Lily Potter," she growled. "This includes allowing him to mind rape him multiple times Dumbledore," she spat.

"Everything I have done was for the greater good of our world," Dumbledore interrupted, finally having rallied himself. "I always knew Voldemort would return and that Harry would have to face him. For that he needed to be strong and capable and thus I set tests for him to prove his worth," he explained. "It was clear to me the Ministry wasn't going to do anything as they blindly allowed Death Eaters to escape punishment, just for money," he spat, aiming his comment at Bones and Augusta. "Severus was a key helper in preparing Harry for his task of fighting Voldemort. So what if I had to ignore certain things he did, when the safety of our way of life was at stake?" he pressed. "The life of one teenage wizard is nothing compared to the thousands out there under threat from the Dark Lord, any price is worth his destruction," he raged.

"No!" Xander shot back. "It is not. You used all that as an excuse to play your games and control people," he argued. "You had no one's greater good in mind but your own, and the students have paid the price for your pride. Well, no more," he stated.

"Albus Dumbledore, you are hereby stripped of the title of headmaster and ordered to vacate the school by tomorrow morning with all of your belongings and nothing more," Madam Bones formally stated, having had enough and wanting this meeting to end. "Anything left behind will be burned. Good day Albus," she finished.

"I will not let you get away with this. I still have friends in the Ministry and I will be back," Dumbledore vowed before he turned and stormed out of the room.

"That could have gone better," Mr. Montague said.

"At least it is over now and all we have left is one last bit of business which will be far more pleasant," Augusta pointed out, feeling tired and drained from the day's events. She was sure the others felt the same and so the board members took a break for a few minutes before they called in their last 'victim'. All were relieved that this long day was nearly over and that they only had to finish this last bit of business.

Finally the house elf who had served them whole day, brought in Professor Flitwick.

Lady Longbottom stood up this time and said, "Welcome Professor, please sit down as this will take a moment."

The Professor nodded and while he sat down asked in a calm tone, "So now it's my turn to get sacked like Snape and Dumbledore?"

Augusta shook her head in bemusement and replied, "On the contrary, old friend. We have quite the challenge for you if you agree to take it." She came over to him and held a folder out to him. "In this folder you will find all information about the changes we plan for Hogwarts. On the first page you'll find a short table of content and behind that you find the details to each point, including suggested possibilities for new teachers. Please read the summary and then tell us what you think."

Filius nodded and took the folder out of Augusta's hand, opened it and started to read the table of content. As he continued reading his eyes bulged out more and more, finally he was finished and looked with disbelief at the board members before him. "You can't be serious. Those are a lot of changes you plan for the school. Most of those should have happened years ago and they can never be implemented by September 1st."

"We agree and that is why we plan to implant most of those ideas over the school year. Only those highlighted will have to be done in the next two weeks," Augusta replied with a smile.

"I feel sorry for the poor smug who will get saddled with the post as headmaster," Filius muttered.

Augusta's smile widened a bit more and then she said with mirth in her voice. "The board has decided to offer you the post of headmaster as off now."

Filius looked in shock at Augusta and lost his voice for a moment, until he replied, "Me?"

Augusta nodded and said, "Read the folder and then give me your reply tomorrow. Because the school year starts in only two weeks, Lord Black and I will help you in any we can if you take the post."

As the other board members got up she said, "Have a nice evening Filius." Then she got up as well and left the room with her colleagues.

AN: Phew…it is done…..that damn chapter fought me with tooth and nails and just didn't want to be written. I'll hope you enjoy the result and that it isn't too bad. A big thank you to Razial who helped me out with the Board vs. Dumbledore scene, without his weeks that would have took quite a while longer to be finished.

AN: A big thank you to Inachis for going over this chapter.


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